Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards exist to celebrate individuals or groups who have had a significant impact fighting censorship anywhere in the world.
Awards were offered in: Defence of freedom of expression; circumvention of censorship; whistleblower of the year; and an ironic award for services to censorship.
Jiang Weiping is a Chinese journalist who was arrested by the Communist Party of China and sentenced to 8 year’s imprisonment in 2001 for exposing government corruption. He was released on 4 January 2006 after being granted a remission of his punishment.
Şanar Yurdatapan is a Turkish composer and song writer who is campaigning against the prosecution of publishers by the Turkish authorities. In his position as the director of the Initiative for Freedom of Expression, he is advertising a ‘civil disobedience’ movement for freedom of speech since 1995.
Anna Politkovskaya was an internationally recognised Russian journalist with the newspaper Novaya Gazeta who was indefatigably reporting on human rights violations in Chechnya and exposing corruption of governmental officials. She was killed in the elevator of her apartment building on 7 October 2006. Investigations into her murder are ongoing displaying a weak judicial system and lack of transparency.
The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was ironically awarded with this precious award for his increasingly authoritarian grip on the Italian media.
